Painted Glass

Our first order of hanging-business in the twins room was getting the big painted window pane up.  A friend gave it to us for the nursery and so we couldn’t wait to get it up.  I even had the perfect spot…

…and then the stud-finder shattered my decor dreams by telling me there wasn’t a stud dead center in the middle of the far wall.  Ever had that happen to you?  You want to hang something heavy somewhere, you go to find a stud, and the only one is like a foot to either side?  It’s one of my decorating pet peaves.  Either way, my two options were 1) rip out the wall and put a new stud where I wanted it or 2) improvise.  After pleading my option #1 case to the handy man around here, I took my shut-down to option #2.  I know what some of you are thinking, “Why didn’t you just use a heavy-duty dry-wall anchor?”.  If you came over and lifted this thing, you’d know why.  It’s a beast!  To be honest, we probably could’ve gotten away with a super-super-super duty anchor but I wasn’t taking any chances.  The last thing I want is a glass angel crashing into me while I’m rocking away. 

So, back to option two – improvising.  That’s exactly what we did when we added these Target shelves I found for $3 (at Dirt Cheap) to the left side of the painted window last weekend: 
To accessorize them I just used things we had laying around – a St. Philomena statue (love that girl), a candle from my sis, a piece of fabric I cut out from a tablecloth, metal l-o-v-e letters I found at Goodwill for a few cents a long time ago, a candle votive and vase from my mom, a tissue paper pouf (good tutorial here) made for my baby shower by my friend Jenn, and a jazzed-up Dollar Store frame showcasing some homemade, 10-minute art.

Today you’re gonna get to know the art and how that all went down.  You see, when we put these shelves up last weekend, I needed an easy way to fill the frame so I simply place a few sheets of tissue paper inside and then painted the girls’ initials onto the front of the glass with the same gold paint I used on the mirror over their bed and the corners of the frame, which I’ll get to later.  I got the idea from it’s side-kick, the angel painted on window, and thought it’d complement her by copying.  Not to mention that down here in the South, monogramming is the bees knees so I figured I’d semi-cave to that trend.  At least everyone knows now that “s & c” live here, right?

 

But, I wasn’t in love with the way the initials turned out – I meant to make them smaller – but this was a late night project and I wasn’t in the mood to re-do them.  So, the next day I snapped some pictures for the Fresh Coat of Paint feature and went on my merry way.

A couple of days passed and, perfectionist being my middle name, I had to do something about my frame art.  Since I had just painted right over the glass, removing the initials was as easy as spraying some glass cleaner and sliding the paint right off with a razor.   

This time around, instead of trusting my free-hand again, I went to work on Word where I simply typed up the girls’ names (free font:  Porcelain), printed it out…

 

…cut out each word, and taped them underneath the frame glass to be painted over like so: 

Then I got out a smallish paint brush and started painting right over the letters.

Ten minutes later it was done and up.

And, once again, I wasn’t satisfied.  "Seraphia” was a tad crooked and the whole thing a tiny bit off-center, and all-in-all a little fancier than I thought it’d be.  So, a glutton for painting, out came the glass cleaner and razor for another go at it and off I went to Word, where I created these two new designs:

After  much debate (inside my own head of course), I ended up going with… 
…option #1 (free font:  Matilde except for the ampersand which I randomly picked).  I painted it on the same way I painted the previous design, but instead of cutting each word out, I stuck the whole document behind the frame to make sure everything would be nice and straight.  So easy and just imagine the options.  You could print just about anything, paint over it, and have some great looking art…and then you could get out the glass cleaner and do it all over again, and again, and again…fun, fun, fun.

And that’s that…but wait!  The frame.  I could’ve sworn I took pictures of how I painted the corners of my $1 frame, but alas, they are not to be found.  Either I hid them from myself or I’m just losing my mind.  Probably the latter.  But, in case you’re interested in knowing, all I did was lay pieces of tape a couple of inches from each end, painted within the taped areas, and removed the tape (while the paint was still wet to reduce peeling).  I whipped up a little diddy in pixlr.com for ya below to further explain:
The blue lines represent where I taped.  It was a super-easy way to dress up a frame and I love how it turned out.  I’m thinking I might have to do the same elsewhere in our abode.  Maybe a whole gallery wall?  Who knows. 

Anyway, that’s the story on the shelves and their contents.  My nervous twitch cause by the off-center angel is now settled and it’s on to the next (and final) wall of the nursery – the one over the dresser.  It’ll have a frame collage with a side of unconventional art.  Stay tuned to see how that turns out!

Until then though, I’m off to brush my teeth, put some real clothes on, tame my hair, etc… (the stuff I should’ve done before I sat down to blog… lucky for you, we’re separated by a whole world of web) before the twins wake up from nap numero uno. 

Have a great weekend y’all!!!!

P.S.  I’m back (still have to do the aforementioned things) to tell you that you have to check out my Godchild, you simply have to.  If you need a smile, you’ll find one, an ab work-out/laugh, you’ll get it, fashion ideas, you’ll get them, a sense of care-free living, you’ll get that too.  Go!  I promise you won’t be disappointed!!!!!!!!!!!!  (Just one more.)  :)